Course and Event Calendar

Stakeholder Engagement

Open, honest and respectful stakeholder engagement is not only crucial to the success of individual projects and programs – but to the very future of public trust in our governments.

Canvassing and balancing the needs of different stakeholders, keeping communities informed of project progress, providing channels for public feedback and evaluation – all of these are clearly critical to the success of any public sector program. And with declining trust in many government institutions, the need for transparent and respectful public engagement has never been greater. For many years, IPAA Victoria’s Stakeholder engagement workshop has been one of our most popular courses. The reason for its success lies in a combination of the latest ‘science’ of stakeholder engagement, practical real-life case studies – and one of the most respected trainers in the business.

What will you learn?

Stakeholder engagement explores a variety of practical strategies and systems for implementing and promoting stakeholder engagement in public sector initiatives. The course will review engagement standards, such as IAP2 and AA1000, and look at online tools that can assist you in the management of your engagement activities.

Learn to use a number of templates that can be adapted to stakeholders’ needs

Recognise and tackle challenges, biases and opportunities as they arise.

What should you expect?

All public sector organisations need to interact with their stakeholders – be they external groups or internal partners. Course participants will learn best-practice approaches to stakeholder engagement, as well as the methodologies and processes for their planning and implementation.

Each participant will be asked to discuss an engagement program they are currently involved in. (They can opt to team up with others if they feel another program is more relevant to them.) They will then be ‘stepped through’ each stage of a formal stakeholder engagement plan – from identifying stakeholders and setting objectives, to defining communications and feedback channels, understanding key messages, analysing risks, drafting reports, and evaluating engagement. After each segment, the participants will be asked to share their work and discuss how it can be improved.

Who is the facilitator?

David Hawkins has more than 30 years of experience in public communications, spanning issues and crisis management, media relations, community engagement and government relations. As head of the Melbourne-based communications consultancy, Socom, he has worked with state and federal governments in responding to some of Australia’s highest profile crises – including the Black Saturday bushfires, the Cranbourne methane gas incident, and the ‘pink bats’ insulation scheme. Under David’s management, Socom has won more than 70 national and international awards, including the IABC Golden Quill and Business Issues awards, the American Silver Anvil Award, the Asia Pacific PR Award, and the Public Relations Institute of Australia’s Golden Target Award.

Who Should Attend?

This highly interactive one-day workshop will benefit any public sector employee who needs to engage with internal or external stakeholders in the course of their work. Facilitator David Hawkins can tailor the course to specific government teams or project outcomes – and deliver the training in-house if required.